Saturday, 30 June 2012

Today on the last day of June the Crafty Vintage crew were at Brockholes Nature Reserve Samlesbury near Preston Lancashire.
Despite the weather there was a good mix of stalls although probably more craft than vintage and not a vintage car in sight I can only assume the weather put the Vintage car owners off.
Amongst the mix of the usual stalls found at these events i spotted a selection of exquisite hand made designer biscuits decorated in a vintage style.

Monday, 25 June 2012

le Petit Echo de la Mode meaning "small review of fashion" was founded in 1879 and ran right through to the 1950's. The magazine featured Children's and Adult clothing styles as well as also housekeeping, cooking and entertainment topics.

These unusual buttons are made to look like coins. There are eight with an 'antique' silver tone finish and one with a bright silver tone finish. Sorry: the item shown below is now sold. I also have a set of three slightly larger buttons, with heads on them, priced at £3.00 for three buttons.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, folks! I'm off to a barbecue in a few hours ... now where's my umbrella!

Friday, 15 June 2012

Susan Bogert Warner was born in New York in 1819, she wrote many Religious & Children's fiction and other theological works. She wrote 30 novels often under the name Elizabeth Wetherell, her first novel The Wide Wide World (1850) was her most popular. It was translated into many languages including French, German and Dutch. Susan Warner died onMarch 17, 1885 (aged 65) at Highland Falls, New York.

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

I have been looking forward to harvesting the wild berries growing in my backyard this year. It looks like it will be a bumper crop. But as much fun as harvesting can be ( just think of Sal from the book "Blueberries For Sal") I will still have to prepare them. Luckily, I have several items that could have been in Sal's 1948 kitchen that still look and work great today.

Sunday, 10 June 2012

Morning all! I thought I would show you some of the metal buttons and one metallic-look button that I have added to Love Buttons HQ recently...

This first button is made from British Butterscotch Bakelite and has been given a metallic-look finish. The original colour can be seen on the lower petal where a small chip is missing. A very interesting article on the subjectby Jocelyn Howells, can be found on the British Button Society website (links are towards the bottom of that page). This button costs £5.00.

The next button is amazing! Two knights are fighting, surrounded by an intriguing border featuring sea serpents and mythical creatures, with some strange lettering. This large, vintage metal button measures 46mm in diameter. It costs £15.00.

Finally, these pretty, modern, metal buttons are second-hand. They feature a central 'pearl', with a diamante-studded border. The metal has a gold tone finish. They are sold individually at 30p each.

Saturday, 9 June 2012

Cash's has been delivering quality and service since 1846. Then the company was England's leading silk ribbon manufacturer. Today those traditional craft skills are enhanced with some of the industry's most advanced technologies and production techniques to offer our customers well priced woven labels and badges that help them succeed in today's competitive markets.

Cash's (UK) is today one of the UK's best- quality weavers, a market leader with the computerized technology that now dominates this industry. Yet but for the pioneering fervour of two Quaker brothers in Coventry last century, the company would not exist.

John and Joseph Cash were their names. Elder sons of a wealthy stuff-merchant, they began production of silk ribbons in the early 1840s. Coventry by then was already famous for its silk weaving. Skilled jacquard weavers - Huguenots escaping persecution in Europe - had settled there and soon thousands of local people were employed in this cottage industry. Workers owned their own jacquard looms and the Cashs, like other merchants, distributed the silk for them to weave in their homes. A fixed price was paid for each finished piece.

The brothers Cash fast outgrew this system and instead became factory masters. They were among the first in Coventry, pioneers of a more enlightened approach to employment. Soon, they planned to build a 'halfway house' which would allow their workers the independence of the old outworker methods while they themselves controlled output. In 1857, work began on a site at Kingfield which Cash's (UK) was to occupy for the next 138 years. Above rows of weavers' cottages, the brothers created an upper storey with well-lit work areas housing jacquard looms powered by a central beam engine. These were the famous Cash's Topshops. And the prizewinning silk ribbons woven there were used on the prettiest gowns, to the delight of fashionable society ladies.The Free Trade Bill of 1860 allowed continental ribbons to flood the English market and many established Coventry firms collapsed. Not Cash's. The brothers responded, switching production to narrow frillings, to Victorian silk commemoratives and latterly to woven labels with which garment manufacturers could identify their products. Then came the development that would make the name of Cash's (UK) famous.

It was in the 1870s that the first Cash's woven nametape rattled off the jacquard looms. Since then successive generations of school children have come to rely on this method of identification. In January 1964, Cash's (UK) was appointed 'Manufacturers of Woven Name Tapes to Her Majesty the Queen.' Today, as the sole survivor of those historic Coventry weavers, Cash's has consolidated market leadership by diversifying the range of quality woven products and combining its weaving heritage with the latest developments in computerized technology.

Friday, 1 June 2012

Does anyone remember the Rag & Bone Man? I remember hearing him shout rag & bone when i was a child in the 1960's, all the children were scared of him. Mum usually gave him old clothes in return he would give her a donkey stone which was used to clean the stone steps.

This is from an flyer from about the 1940's/1950's i guess a more up market Rag and Bone Man because he could afford to buy items from you!

Dear Sir or MadamI am out to buy anything you have got for sale, Old stockings, Iron, Rags, Cast-off Clothing of any kind, Old Clocks, Lead, Copper and Brass, Old Carpets, Shirts, Socks etc, also buyer of old Wringing Machines.I have been solicited to buy and collect the above articles in this vicinity and instructed to give the highest ready money prices. I also buy Old coats, Waistcoats, Trousers, Gowns, Shawls, Shoes, Boots, Clogs, or any old brass Candlesticks, Old Warming Pans, Broken Spoons, Old Boilers, Metal Teapots, Old Lead and Pewters, Copper kettles etc.The hands of the Mills are now only half employed for want of goods of the above description. Best prices given for Old Oak Chairs or Tables. Best prices given for Old Rushbottom Chairs and Oak Tables.We will call again in one hours time with horse and cart.

I guess these days the guys who roam the streets in a trucks and vans looking for scrap metal are the up-to-date version of the Rag and Bone Man.